Tucker stumbles in Citrus Series opener

June 14, 2008|By MIKE BERARDINO Staff writer

ST. PETERSBURG — A.J. Burnett's place in Marlins lore is safe.

Ryan Tucker (1-1) gutted out five decent innings on Friday night in a 7-3 loss to the Rays but failed in his bid to join Burnett (1999) as the only Marlins rookie starters to win their first two outings.

"I needed to control myself a little bit better, get my pitches over the middle of the plate and let them get themselves out," Tucker said after allowing three walks. "I just need to work ahead [in the count], and I think everything will be better."

Even while missing All-Star left fielder Carl Crawford, just beginning a four-game suspension for a recent brawl at Boston, the patient Tampa Bay lineup drew six walks and produced at least one hit from all but one spot in the batting order.

The Marlins, meanwhile, opened the game with three consecutive hits off Rays right-hander Andy Sonnanstine - triple, double, single - but saw their next 12 batters retired in order. Alfredo Amezaga's fifth-inning single the Marlins' only run-producing hit in the final eight frames.

In fact, the Marlins didn't draw a single walk all night against any of the four Rays pitchers. They managed to reach three-ball counts just five times as they repeatedly hacked away early in the count.

Starting a three-city swing through the AL, the Marlins were in danger of matching a season-high deficit of four games in the NL East. The first-place Phillies were blowing out the Cards at press time.

The Citrus Series, marking its 11th season on the interleague schedule, finally had some juice, even if only 19,312 turned out to watch. Both teams entered Friday solidly in second place in their respective divisions, and they carried a combined mark of 16 games over .500.

How novel was this? Well, both teams carried winning records into just three of their previous 55 meetings, all of those coming in a one-week span in 2004.

Even with Friday's loss, the Marlins lead the all-time series 34-22.

Hoping to build on the success he enjoyed Sunday in defeating the Reds at home, Tucker took the mound with a 2-0 lead. However, the right-hander allowed a pair of runs in each of his first two innings.

Tucker settled down to retire eight in a row before Jason Bartlett singled to start the fifth. Bartlett came around to score on Akinori Iwamura's double and an RBI groundout from Dioner Navarro, but Tucker survived the inning by getting rookie Evan Longoria to fly to right.

Tucker finished with five earned runs allowed on seven hits and three walks, but he managed to throw 58 of his 97 pitches for strikes (.598).

The Marlins missed several plays in the field, although they were charged with just one error. Jorge Cantu let Navarro's foul drop in the second, Dan Uggla failed to glove a Willy Aybar foul in the fourth and Jeremy Hermida overran a Gabe Gross popup in the sixth